Flight To the World's End
by Flashfire
Summary: A childish female with a plain routine and a slow job finds herself unexplainably linked to one of the biggest mysteries surrounding the world at current. Can she really find an answer? [ch.1 uploaded]


#Flight to the World's End# a story by Flashfire  
  
~"Wherever you go, there you are." -- many, many people~  
  
  
  
Chapter 1: Breakfast  
  
It was all blue, and it passed her by faster then she could keep track. There was no white in this dome of a sky, and no end, either.. with the wind in her face and the passing greenery below, she felt invincible, and in all truth she probably was. The sun was down, yet it was still light, and a lot hotter then she'd like. But no heat would stand in her way. Neither would anything else, as she banked right in the air, and lowered as well, brushing the canopies of trees with her legs and chest. The only thing that mattered was the destination, except she didn't know what that was. It was, however, in this direction somewhere. Under the tree layer.. was it really possible to take it at such speed?  
  
Of course it was. Should any tree step out in front of her, it would lose its top half faster then she could probably say 'owch'. Confidence as her ally, she dropped below the layers, and started weaving her way through the trees, delicately but with speed. Each twinge moved her maybe a degree; each narrow turn meant another few trees safely navigated. It required the utmost concentration; she was barely making a breath. Then, the noise started. A series of shrill pierces that bore into her head; rhythmic, obnoxious, and built to shatter concentration into a thousand pieces. Bravely she kept going, though, still trying to fix on the direction. She clipped a tree every now and then; sometimes light, sometimes hard enough to change direction. It would be beaten. The thought of stopping was taboo, and she would not bring herself to confront it, not so late in the journey. Still the noises continued, and whatever realism she used to assess a situation already knew the outcome was not going to be good. A tree caught her hard on the left, it sent her spinning in the air still. She could recover this, and she did, whipping herself left, to complete the spin, and keep going. However, she was going much too fast to avoid the next tree, and she could see it approaching with her adrenalin-crazed eyes.. Surely she could just plough through it?  
  
It was at the last split second, with the noises still drilling holes into her essence, that her courage wavered. The tree, had by then eclipsed her view, and .....  
  
... suddenly the whole area went dark. It was not the dark of a silent unconsciousness.. more the darkness of sitting under a thick blanket. In slight shock, the female clawed aside the covering, and shunted herself backwards on the bed, leaning against the wall. The pillow, the bedsheets, the blankets, and herself, were soaked. It had the salty odour of sweat, and the air tasted rather foul as well. The room was still dark, but she knew what it looked like when light, anyway. The alarm clock, a digital one with a representation of a Porygon that looked slightly nautious (she thought) was buzzing away as loud as ever, and with a strangely tired movement, she pushed the button on its top. The noise stopped, and silence had control for a second, before the same artificial likeness made another noise.  
  
"Good morning, Cassie."  
  
The voice was rather metallic, but then, it was supposed to be like that. Cassie scowled at it for a while, before throwing the covers in front of her, and swapping position on the bed, to be lying on her front, head away from the pillows.  
  
"What's so good about it, anyway? For an unintelligent clock, you sure do have the best ability to wake me up at the wrong times.."  
  
Cassie wasn't expecting an answer, but it would have made her feel better.. even if the greeting was a phonetic message she'd programmed in to it herself, it's still the first thing she heard every single morning. It was therefore reassuring, and somewhat normal, for her to want an answer. Or so she'd tried telling herself, in front of a mirror. She didn't buy it, and neither would any institution in the land. Not that she'd ever have to try her luck with it, of course. What day was it, anyway.. sliding off the bed, she walked towards the lightswitch in the dark, flicking it on, and illuminating the room for a brief but painful second, before the lightbulb shorted out, and all faded to black again.  
  
"Not that I can't navigate this room with my eyes closed.. stupid bulbs.." she uttered, before wandering back over to her bed. Still, she didn't test that statement either, opening a coupld of faded peach curtains to one side of the room, before scooping up some random clothes from all over the untidy room. Probably mismatched, but she didn't give a damn. She could probably turn up at work wearing leather and fishnet, and carrying a whip, and they'd just look at her, hand her the work roster, and wander off without batting an eye. Oh, wait... she'd done that two weeks ago. That new kid with the glasses and uncut hair that was obviously the result of university had reacted to it, by taking a leak in his shorts and fleeing the store. She'd lost a week's pay for that, which was unfortunate. However, she was giggling as she flopped back upon the bed, and changed...  
  
Cassie's kitchen was not very large, and was just stuck on the end of the dining room, almost like the architect didn't realise the occupants wouldn't want to eat take-out food every single day. Just to be nice, though, take-out is what she did eat most days. Not for breakfast, though, she was ever so much more civilised then that. Breakfast was whatever she didn't finish of yesterday's takeout, heated up in the microwave, and topped off with cinnamon. Pots were stacked up near the sink, just waiting for the time when they would be needed. Cassie never really had the time to wash everything at once, so she'd just pluck one off the top and wash it whenever she needed something to eat from. Not sanitary, but it did work, very well. Anyway, a quick scrub, clean, and polish later, and the bowl she'd picked up looked fairly new. Well... compared to the other things, it looked like it was antique. Maybe it was, heh, she never ever kept track. One day she'd find out she owned a dish worth millions, and bring it in immediately with her lunch, eat it while the experts examined. Did those things go up in value if you gave them the 'used' look?  
  
"Suppose I need to wash a second dish.. this one wouldn't last long in the ray machine. But what the hell.." she mumbled, tossing it onto the table, the centrepiece of the dining room, where it slid, knocking some prelaid salt onto the floor, where it rolled around, lodging by a wall. The top, thankfully, was still on. Cassie noted it, to pick it up after she'd finished preparing her 'cordon bleu' meal for this morning.  
  
"Yes folks.. welcome to another edition of Cooking With Cassandra.. with your lovable host, Cassie Talittson. Today, fans.." She liked to dialogue herself, and if she had any qualifications worth noting, she could probably be someone that works in broadcasting, if only because of the number of things on TV she watched.. "..we prepare a special dish, for the sixtieth time.. because so many people loved the first one. So, here we present.. Cantonese noodles, a la poisson." Seemed her mode of preparation changed every time.. whether she made the noodles in the fish or in the phone book, what you got was the same, and it went kinda like this.. "..You don't need a lot of things for this, but what you do need is very important, so listen.." Cassie walked up to her fridge, and opened it, removing a covered dish filled with noodles, a few peppers, some dessicated coconut, and mushrooms. The thing probably wasn't Cantonese in the slightest, though the box they came in might have been Taiwanese.. she, however, was in a world of her own. "Well, no need for a second dish, anyway... Err, so. Take some leftover takeaway noodles, that were ordered the day before, mostly eaten, and the rest put in the freezebox for the night. You also need some cinnamon.." Cassie grabbed a rather large ornate pepper shaker, that was labelled 'MAGIC INGREDIENT' in bright red marker, that actually glowed in the dark, for some pointless reason. "And lastly.. you need an electromagnetic mid-wavelength ray producing short-range fully enclosed machine. You can find these mysteries of technology labelled as 'microwaves', even though that's the name of the wave they produce.. but, ignoring convention for now.." She wondered about the exhibition of her trivia knowledge, or lack thereof. Just get to cooking the stuff, Cass, you're probably late as it is. "So, watch closely, there isn't much you can say about this part. Stir noodles, add water, add cinnamon, stir again, add more cinnamon, put in raybox." She completed these tasks fairly quickly.. day in and day out of the making routine makes someone an expert at it, and even if the dish really is just a tacky leftovers meal, she exhibited the prowess of someone that could be making something a lot better. The smell of the water bothered her a little.. hard water, slightly pungent, but comes out nice as long as it isn't drunk neat. "Heh.. don't drink the water neat, dilute it first..." She closed her eyes and laughed at the stupid statement for a minute or so, before putting the dish into the microwave, adding a little more cinnamon, just in case.. and then closing the door. "Set your raybox to 'atomisation', or just 'full power'.. and torture food for around 5 minutes. 300 seconds of ray bombardment, and then it's ready to eat.. though you should probably wait first, else it'll burn your jaw off. I should know.. you think this lower jaw here is real, do ya?" she lectured, rather aggressively, into a mirror. The figure staring back needed serious getting into order, she thought. Not a very tall person, barely 5'8, and even then only in the mornings. Very light hair, that she'd had streaked a slight blue at various points. Her clothes really didn't match, either, just a worn-in T-shirt with the words "Knowledge Is Power, And Power Corrupts, So Go To School, And Be An Evil Overlord At 17!" written on in shoddy fluorescent marker. She had another markerpen shirt, only that one had "If You Can Read This, You're Going To Die", but she kept that in a drawer because the 'management' had told her it frightened the customers. Otherwise, Cassie was the very model of a modern 25 year old, with the mentality of a 17 year old, and the animosity of both. She possessed the "I'm going to own you all eventually" look, rather like a wolf in sheepskin, because she'd spent eight years in a dead job and kept herself away from promotion consistantly by way of the most ridiculous things..  
  
Suddenly, a loud "DING" came from the microwave. Five minutes passes by rather quickly when you're staring at yourself in the mirror with thoughts of work, life, and nachos, on your mind. "And so concludes today's episode.. for the recipe, turn to page 1 of the 'Low-Cost Breakfast Making Handbook', which hasn't been written yet, so don't even bother." mumbled she, pulling the dish out of the box, swapping it from hand to hand with the odd 'owch', before tipping its contents rather precariously into the metal tray she set up earlier, before placing the hot ceramic dish into the sink, where a small hiss signified how hot the plate -really- was. So ended the preparation of breakfast, and the eating was carried out in silence.  
  
Many days of eating that had also made her good at not losing any of it on her clothes, even while tired.. Why -was- she more tired then usual, anyway? She mused, generally she didn't take the cooking demo show right to its conclusion. It felt a lot earlier then it was, anyway.. "Hey, Benzi, what time is it?" she called back into her bedroom. Benzi was the clock's name, and its slight AI would detect she said it, and thus give her the time. "The time is 6:25, and 23 seconds." Cassie didn't have work until 9am. ".. why the hell did I have it set on 6am, anyway?! Stupid Taiwanese clock-makers!" Small pause. "Oh, wait.. the clock was made in this country.. fine. Unusual, I thought they even made babies over in Taiwan land.." Well, they did.. Cassie sat down, in the main room of her small house. It wasn't large, in a similar fashion to the others, and it sported a complete litterance of stuff on the floor, although a single armchair and a TV were the main highlights of the room. It also contained a hidden hi-fi system, but it was hidden because she rarely used it at all. "So, I can watch early morning TV, which consists of news, and more news.. or, go to work and clock in some overtime." A split second went by, before Overtime - Money - £££££ flashed up on the ideas meter. Two more seconds went by, and then another half-minute, and Cassie had on her coat, a large brown affair with pockets that would fit her whole arm. Twelve minutes later, involving turning the already massacred room upside down, she had on a pair of very worn sneakers, and they laughed at everything to show for it. "Well.. hi ho, hi ho, it's off to hard labour I go.." she mused, pulling her keys out the back of the door, and locking it, before throwing them into one of her two abyss-pockets, and heading off down the road; the house lacked a garden at the front, like so many others on the row.  
  
It wouldn't occur to Cassie about the fact she'd left the salt on the floor until she got more then halfway to work.  
  
Some other, more important, things.. they had yet to be seen. She shall reach them in due time. The daily routine was just that.. and although Cassie would never admit it, she was dying for a break from it.  
  
The Fates would favour such a break, and she thought they already did. A very important thing occurred, but it appeared before she got to the end of the road.  
  
"...today's the day of my trip!! No wonder I had the alarm on 6am! I'm such a KLUTZ!"  
  
And thus, the street all got to wake up incredibly early, as well.  
  
  
  
"I.. have a plane to catch at 8am, that's why I'm up now.." she reminded herself, staring at Benzi's digital readout from right next to it. 6:55, it said. Of course, today was the day, and the reason she'd had the dream, of course! Also the reason she didn't remember, she'd spent a lot of last night in thought about it. "You see, Benzi, the legendary birds appear.. every day nearly! Just.. not right around the corner. They appear on other continents of this planet, in the afternoon, and they stay for a while, before disappearing near the start of early morning. I seen two of them already, and those.." she pointed to a chest of drawers in a corner of her room.. "are all kept up there."  
  
She wandered over to it. It was her 'private shrine'; Cassie liked the whole thing surrounding the legendary birds, although she didn't deify them, as many others had done. They were curiosities.. and since Cassie's birthsign in some region or other was the Meowth, it was only natural she should want to go see the birds.. both for curiosity, and for the whole food thing. Although Cassie had no interest in eating them, really. Upon the shrine were three statuettes, and in front of two were many papers, photographs, a few sheets of notepad paper, and in one case, a feather. Not authentic, that was impossible; but the guy had believed so hard it was, she couldn't say no. In front of the one on the extreme left was just a single red bit of paper. That was the spot for Articuno, and she'd left that one until last because it was her favourite of the three. Today, though, she would go see it. The bit of paper was her ticket to head off to a small town in Cétil, which was a continent far west of where she was. Previous excursions had been to the very south of the continent where she was, Axpi.. and to the east continent of Omir. Talasin was her Omir visitation, and it was a very nice place, much more advanced then her little town of Danhock, which recieved its power from somewhere up north she didn't know the name of. "I hope she doesn't move location, Benzi.. they do that sometimes, move location.. sometimes a little, but it's been a whole continent many times now. Still, she's been where she has been for a long time now, many months.. and I'm good with things like this.. I'll be fine."  
  
Picking up her ticket, she set off piling some stuff into her case, a white, yet blank, suitcase, with 'Travelling Psycho: Do Not Annoy' stencilled on the side by its previous owner.. and that had been the reason she had bought it, really. Guaranteed her a seat to herself on any public transport off-continent. Work did know she was off for a few days, because she'd said so. Stupid morning thing.. nearly had her miss the flight. Oh well, she thought again. No point mourning over something I didn't lose. "After all, the airport isn't that far.. and I have just under an hour.." the clock that now said 7:04 confirmed. "Leaving the house, take two." She stepped out, locking the door again.. beore removing a bit of her breakfast from between teeth, and wandering off down the road in the other direction. A lone Pidgey followed her for a while, before veering off to the right.  
  
"It's a nice sight.. but there's nicer.. and soon I'll have seen them all." she muttered to herself. Perhaps after this, she could go tracking the last, elusive, legendary that had been sighted in the last while. Cassie stopped that thought, though. No point being ambitious, it's been 16 years since the last confirmed sighting.  
  
"All about the birds, it is.." It seemed a little more like disappointment then confirmation.. She'd be in better mood once she'd taken off, jetlag was always a mood setter to look forward to.. she'd exploit her good mood while she could, on the plane. 


End file.
